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SOMETHING DIFFERENT #8 : The life of Tioralak, artic bush pilot - Part 1


jean marc

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This is a long travel in the Artic world in P3D4-4 with Global, Open LC and Vector

 

We will fly during the long winter night thanks to the full moon light with myriads of stars, over the snow and icefields.


In late spring and early fall, we will travel with dog sledges along the coast of Greenland and Northern Canada, and we will be on board of oumiak and kayaks during the short summer with 24hours daylight days 

 

Following historical paths opened by artic explorers, we will stay at places of terrible drama due to the worst weather conditions or severe starvation following unfortunate hunts

 

We will fly over the Earth's most northern settlements, we will meet the inuit people of Nunavut and Baffin Island up to Alaska and Eastern Siberia, travelling with Knud Rasmussen, Cook and Amundsen, Frobisher, Back, Franklin, Mackenzie, Kane, Nansen, Nobile, the poor Greely expedition members, and others great Artic explorers...

 

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What is the most exciting birthday for a 12 years old inuit kid ? Neither meeting and fighting a very savage polar bear, huge, teeth, really fierce,...that is too common, nor navigating on icy freezing water hunting walrus and whale with spears aboard slim kayaks, that is all routine.
Thanks to my dear Kratona*-Godfather Malorissuaq, I was for the first time in a plane...flying around our Big Island 
(*Kratona = european white man for greenlanders)

 

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I enjoyed a bird eyes view on all the villages around... Ummannaq, Illussat, Oqaatsut ... Mid spring and most of the land was still fully covered of snow...
We were flying south from Qaarsut upto Qeqertarsuaq - crossing so easily the sea near Assiat where I spent a few years just after our departure from the Northern Groenland (all my family is coming from Thule area : we are proud to be Artic natives - we are "Inughuit" !)

 

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I was intensely staring at friends fishing from their kayak and families crossing the strait on their oumiaks*. And I was watching all my favorite animals... 


Fortunately in the air, there were neither toupidek* nor timertstit* ! 

 

Terrible toupidek* wandering on the floating ice, never able to return neither among his people nor among the men...Of course I am secretly ready to repeat very quickly to myself the incantation required to free oneself from the grip of the evil spirit !

 

(*) Oumiak = inuit large boat with low depth to travel through iced sea
(*) Toupidek=monster created by shaman "=angakkuq" magic performances
(*) Timertsit=legendary giant being living on the inner ice of Greenland

 

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About 10 years later, I spent a long time in Disko, working for ethnologists in survey fields, and learning to fly as often as possible with Knuth, the young danish doctor of the island. 


(His father was famous here as about 20 years ago he saved the life of more than a member of each family from a scurvy or from a severe flu epidemy or tuberculosis)


They both always encouraged me to deeply learn to fly and provided me with a tough and intense learning of Danish & English. This was the luck of my life.

 

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After a long but interesting ethno-geological survey of viking settlements in the Southern Greenland, I had enough money to go to Nuuk where I got my private pilot licence ! 


At this time, it was quite unusual for a native young man and this was possible only thanks to the strong influence of my katunas friends...

 

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I learnt to fly a Cessna 170 and a Piper Comanche and a few others too ! I was ready to start my new life as an Artic bush pilot ! 

 

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Then I got the opportunity to work at the Kangerlussuaq airport where a few jetliners, operating between the United Kingdom and Vancouver, stopped to refuel. 

 

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I regulary had to perform flights to transport food and mail between trading posts on the West coast, or to supply fuel and food to scientific posts where they made weather measurements and geological surveys. I had also to pick up ethnologist team, etc. And sometimes in summer, there were as well a few tourists to drop into the fjords or up to the hills for great hikes...

 

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It was a good base camp : I liked to camp in the mountains most of the holidays with my family

 

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In winter, I had a few months off and we appreciated to spend time with my friends from Disko... There I had also a second job: helping my brother to hunt along the coast...

 

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Mid spring : I will have to move to the East Coast to follow and assist a geological survey of the fjords...And for the holidays, I plan to go to Thule which is always in my heart despite the terrible last events…  SEE PART 2 ...

 

Hoping you liked - do not hesitate to leave any comment  :)

 

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What an intertaining serie of historic events and simultanuous info over our upper-northern part of our globe. Must be again, as we used to see from Jean-Marc, been an extensive search and collection of all the data, pictures...and again a lot of airplane-types all hereby smoothly presented. :o 

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13 hours ago, BradB said:

Simply amazing Jean-Marc , your best post ever . :):)

thank you very much for your kind comment John :)

 

13 hours ago, Stillwater said:

Fantastic screenshots, pictures, combinations and narration - once again, Jean Marc! It took me the time of a good glass of red wine to dig through this adventure book.

great to read it with a glass of wine...and as the story is long you could drink more than one :lol: thank you Gerold

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22 hours ago, lifejogger said:

Wow Jean-Marc it is amazing put together screenshots with real photos!!!!!!!!! Enjoyed it!!!!!

thanks John :) wonderful areas (and rich history) so easy to put beautiful real shots B)

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22 hours ago, fltsimguy said:

Wow, is right, what an amazing effort, super photo story.

(and it is only the beginning :rollmyeyes::P) thank you !!

 

21 hours ago, ikbenik said:

What an intertaining serie of historic events and simultanuous info over our upper-northern part of our globe. Must be again, as we used to see from Jean-Marc, been an extensive search and collection of all the data, pictures...and again a lot of airplane-types all hereby smoothly presented. :o 

you are very kind Ikbenik - very much appreciated !

a lot of amazing stories about artic to add ... the main difficulty is to try to be short :lol: and I am lucky to have plenty of beautiful planes and livery ... just to choose :)

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On 6/16/2019 at 2:16 AM, Jack Sawyer said:

This is incredible Jean Marc, I could never do this, I'd lost my patience.  Thanks for such a nice presentation, it really brings things to life.

Happy you liked Jack :) Great places to fly in Artic !

 

On 6/16/2019 at 1:58 PM, musterpilot said:

Fantastic shots as usual thanks

Many Thanks John

 

On 6/16/2019 at 5:52 PM, RichardLouis said:

Good job Jean-Marc. As always, it is very nice and interesting to discover you images.

You are very kind Richard thank you !

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On 6/18/2019 at 5:16 AM, adambar said:

Good grief Jean Marc, what a spectacular post! :)  I don't know how you do it, well done indeed! :)

thank you very much Adam !

(I've just collected beautiful shots on the web about great places where to fly, read some books about artic ... and it took quite a long time to put all together as I collected so many shots :P)

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On 6/17/2019 at 10:41 PM, VH-KDK said:

Another fascinating post Jean Marc.

A lot of time and effort gone into your post.:)

Happy you appreciated it Martyn ... nice area to fly and many things to tell :)

 

 

On 6/19/2019 at 11:23 PM, TigerTigerM said:

JM

Stunning set of images & vignettes. I have only skimmed it at this stage. A masterpiece Novella in the making.

I will need to go back & assemble my list of 'where did that livery & aircraft' come from?:)

TTM

Thank you TTM - if you would like any information for aircraft or livery tell me :)

 

On 6/19/2019 at 11:31 PM, DunRingill said:

Wow, another epic post! Thank you Jean Marc :)

/Magnus

it is a epic world - so many great stories to tell in Artic :) thank you Magnus

 

 

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